My main question is, is there any way to retain original timecode on transcoded MTS footage, either on Mac or PC?

Also, Toast 9's in and out markers don't work for me to essentially transcode "dailies selects" - has anyone gotten anything to work on either Mac or PC? Maybe FCP 6.0.5 on an Intel machine solves both of these problems?

I'm shooting in 720p30 with the HMC150 and will likely end up with a total of ~175 hours, so transcoding all of it is out of the question. I'm running a dual 2.0 Ghz PPC G5 so I can't test these problems on FCP since my machine's not Intel. When/if a new FCP upgrade comes out, I'll get a new machine, but if I'm to edit with transcoded footage in the meantime, I need to be able to eventually re-import the original MTS files with all the cuts I've made so I don't have to go back and re-cut everything because the timecode's different. Make sense? Solutions anyone?

Thank you all very much in advance! I wanted to ask here first instead of going and spending a few grand needlessly on RAID arrays.